Eschatological Inversion
Eschatological Inversion
Mark and “Q” cohere in emphasizing Jesus’ teaching about an eschatological inversion — the exaltation of the lowly and the humbling of the proud. In Mark, Jesus warned that the first would be last, and the last first (Mk 10:31; cf. Matt 19:30; 20:8, 16; Lk 13:30). In the saying’s context, those who sacrificed everything for the kingdom in the present would be exalted in the kingdom, supplanting the prosperous of this age (Mk 10:21-30).145
In “Q,” Jesus claimed that whoever exalted themselves would be humbled, and whoever humbled themselves would be exalted (Matt 23:12//Lk 14:11). In both Matthew and Luke, the contexts involve seating and personal honor.146 Jesus here evokes a biblical concept, including prophetic imagery involving impending judgment in Isaiah,147 and the language does fit Jesus’ contemporary Jewish environment as well.148 Eschatological inversion more generally was also a widespread Jewish expectation.149
It is Jesus’ particular application of this expectation in his ministry that is frequently distinctive. For example, Jesus declares that the kingdom belongs to children (Mk 9:37; 10:14-15) — to those lowly in status and dependent on the heavenly Father (cf. Matt 6:8-9//Lk 11:2; Matt 7:7-11//Lk 11:11-13). This portrait fits many texts about depending on God the way that flowers or birds do (Matt 6:28-30; Lk 12:27-28) — a complete trust in God that also fits the Gospels’ portrait of Jesus as a worker of miracles. (So prominent in Jesus’ parables and wisdom sayings are his emphasis on utter faith in God and relinquishment of possessions that Vermes considers “detachment from possessions, unquestioning trust in God and absolute submission to him” as the central thrust of Jesus’ teaching.)150 This picture may tell us something about Jesus’ own relationship with the Father in terms of his radical dependence on him. The kingdom belonging to children seems to be an idea distinctive to Jesus, yet in keeping with his radical approach to the Jewish idea of end-time inversion.
Jesus’ teachings about outsiders to power also cohere well with his healing ministry and his later confrontation with the authorities (treated in ch. 20). Jesus did not busy himself with impressing the elite, but with healings and exorcisms — with the needy rather than the powerful. Since what mattered was divine approval at the judgment and not human rank in this age, he could not respect the honor boundaries of his culture. His growing popularity would therefore inevitably lead to collision with some members of the elite concerned with preserving their own superior honor in this age. Some others did share this disdain for those honored in this age; whereas Josephus shows that some responded violently (targeting the aristocratic priests), many would have looked to God for vindication. Jesus’ healing ministry, however, seems a fairly distinctive application of this priority (we address Jesus’ healings briefly in ch. 17 and more fully in a separate, forthcoming book).
Less distinctive is Jesus’ expectation of God’s concern for the economically marginal. Although Jesus apparently had some supporters with means (Lk 8:3 [cf. Mk 15:41]), he had special interest in preaching good news to the poor, which he describes in language (in Matt 11:5//Lk 7:22) that clearly evokes Is 61:1 (as appears more fully in Lk 4:18). Jesus’ teaching on God’s concern with the poor coheres well with his Jewish environment,151 but also with the importance of those who had possessions relinquishing them for others (e.g., Mk 10:21), an emphasis noted above.
In “Q,” God’s favor for the poor is expressed also in terms of eschatological inversion: it is the poor who would receive the kingdom (Matt 5:3//Lk 6:20; cf. Jms 2:5). Although the corresponding “woe” to the rich appears characteristically and explicitly only in Luke (Lk 6:24; cf. Lk 1:53), the idea is certainly consistent with Jesus’ teaching, both concerning the wealthy (Mk 10:25) and concerning the use of eschatological inversion, sometimes in the context of woes (e.g., Matt 11:21-23//Lk 10:13-15; Matt 23:12-13).152
Jesus’ ministry to the marginalized led him to transgress some expectations for ritual purity (cf. our discussion in chs. 15-16). Although the matter is too controversial today to make it a central point here, Jesus also seems to have been less apt to enforce traditional gender restrictions than the majority of his ancient Mediterranean contemporaries.153 The conception may also cohere with and inform Jesus’ expectation of impending martyrdom, depending on divine vindication and exaltation.
One place where Jesus’ application of the principle of eschatological inversion is particularly unusual is that he does not speak of Israel’s exaltation over the nations, but welcomes the spiritually and morally marginalized through repentance in light of the kingdom. Among those he welcomes are tax-gatherers, sometimes viewed as collaborators with the Gentile occupation.